Sporting Kansas City vs. Chicago Fire: Match Night Commentary

First place in the MLS Eastern Conference is on the line tonight at Livestrong Sporting Park as first-place Sporting Kansas City takes on the second-place Chicago Fire (8:30pm, NBC Sports).

Sporting KC returns home after a successful road trip and they face a Chicago Fire side that is on the roll, having won four straight.

Red-hot goal-scorer Chris Rolfe will lead the Fire attack and he will face a tough challenge for a Sporting KC defense that has been the best in the league. The Fire defense will be tested as well, with Graham Zusi, Kei Kamara and C.J. Sapong working to unlike a Chicago defense led by German veteran Arne Friedrich.

SBI will be providing live commentary on tonight's match so please feel free to follow along here. As always, you are welcome to share your own thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.

I saw only the last 10 minutes but that looked like great soccer. I think KC and Chicago looked very strong. Wish my Red Bulls would play with that much energy. Chicago has a right to feel angry about getting ZERO calls in the last part of the game. I guess they were looking for the calls, which is why the ref waved play on? But as much as I dislike him as an opponent, Kamara (despite that total douche beard) is fearsome. And Zusi — what a goal. Also douchey hair. Correlation between bad hair and skill? Discuss.

you cant not do anything for 75 minutes and have a couple calls go against you and say you got hosed. it doesnt matter what you look at…shots, possesion, s.o.g, etc. kc was the much better team for most of the night and are the best team in the east.

Fire are blaming the ref for–during the middle of heated playoff battle with 4 games remaining–blowing several huge calls on takedowns at the edge of the box… and then wrongfully sending off both the head coach and the starting left back.

So yeah, the Fire have a right to be furious that they now have to play without their coach and left back–because of an incompetent official–with only 4 games remaining and without having secured a playoff spot yet.

Even without the blatant blown calls the Fire have every right to be completely furious.

As a neutral watching the game, I’d say the ref was bad and KC thoroughly deserved the win. Right from the beginning the ref seemed really hesitant to call anything, and predictably, this led to things getting a bit out of hand by the end. I thought that, aside from the last 20-25 minutes, KC totally dictated the pace and the game and moved the ball around really well.

With respect to Nats/Potential Nats, I thought Zusi looked good, but some of his passes, while still making it through to the intended target, weren’t sharp enough. I’d be willing to give Myers, Besler, and Berry invites to Camp Cupcake.

The ref already decided who he wanted to win, he was a Kansas City fan all night. KC might’ve won the game anyway, but there were many clear fouls on Chicago players in the KC defensive half. I hope this doesn’t hurt Chicago’s playoff positioning with NY and Houston behind them……

Sorry I have eyes and I can see he got the ball and then he tackled the player. Which is a foul, it doesn’t not matter if you get the ball, it matters if you get only the ball. If you want to check this you can go to the US Soccer website, they have a memo, I believe it’s called “But I got the Ball” or something funny like that. It’s to teach referees of US Soccer that getting the ball isn’t enough. Just like it’s not enough in the REST OF THE WORLD.

T: When you write that the ref “decided who he wanted to win,” I have only one question. Are you an 11-year-old Chicago Fire fan? Actually, two questions. Does your dad know you’re using the computer after bedtime?

Must be a KC fan, a better ref would have called those blatantly clear fouls. Usually 11-year old internet users would try to start PC conflicts, but as a grown-up I’ll let you slide. You show your immaturity by commenting about me, and not the game which is the focus of the conversation.

Best team in the East right now. If the Fire win Wed. we are back within 2 points. I will give KC credit tonight. They deserved to win. Simple as that. But Penso is an AWFUL ref. It did not cost the Fire the game tonight, but it cost us in San Jose. And it will likely cost another team soon as well.

Better team tonight? Yes. The Fire took 2 out of 3 vs. KC, including a win early this year at Livestrong. As I said above, a win Wed. and we are back within 2. These two teams are very close to each other talent wise.

I will say this. KC did get lucky that the no call on Rolfe happened (when MacDonald crossed it in the box and no one made the far post run). If Rolfe didn’t get absolutely taken out he would have tapped it in most likely.

The Fire aren’t blaming the ref; we (supporters) are questioning the missed calls that potentially cost us a tie in a crucial match. Regardless of who the better team was for 75 minutes, the match is 90+.

Conrad, let me say this KC played a more dominant game no doubt, and they won the match at the end of the day. I will point out that some favorable calls went KC’s way late in the game, and even if you think Chicago did not deserve a “chance” to win, you cannot dispute that the referee was allowing rough play on Chicago in and outside the penalty box. As a football fan I enjoy a balanced game, and the match was very exciting, but the level of officiating could have been better, a familiar trend all to common in Major League Soccer.

Wow, a really exciting match with some very questionable calls towards the end, but I think the better team came out on top. The most interesting thing to me was how aggressive SKC’s shape was when they had the ball in the first half. At times the center backs were on opposite touch lines and I one point I saw Besler was making a run overlapping Sinovic on the left. The formation looked kind of like this at one point:

SKC plays a very exciting brand of soccer, not surprising their attendance has been great in their new jewel of a stadium. Fire did look dangerous on the counter, and in my mind that is the best way to beat SKC. Kansas City pushes so many numbers forward, including their outside backs, they leave themselves exposed to a quick counter if you catch their center midfielders cheating forward. Bunkering down against Sporting will lead to trouble, as RBNY learned. Ref also screwed Chicago over in the 2nd half.